1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a retaining apparatus for a connector, particularly to a retainer which is easily configured and quickly positioned for fixing a connector on a printed circuit board of a personal computer.
2. The Prior Art
A conventional retaining device of a connector comprises at least a connector engaging portion which includes a barb for fixing itself to the connector and a board engaging portion which includes a hook or the like for fixing itself to a printed circuit board, thereby retaining the connector on the printed circuit board. However, most of the retaining devices of the connectors have the following drawbacks:
1. The retaining device of the conventional connectors usually have very complicated structures thus inducing difficulties in manufacturing and assembling.
2. The relatively engaging direction between the retaining device and the connector is the same as that of the insertion (or withdrawal) direction of the connector into (or from) the printed circuit board. With this structural relationship between the conventional retaining device and the connector, the related engaging portions of each of the retaining device and the connector is apt to be worn out or broken due to long time of insertion or withdrawal of the connector into or from the circuit board.
There are some advanced retaining devices of the connectors are configured in such a way that the relatively engaging direction between the retaining device and the connector is different from that of the insertion (or withdrawal) direction of the connector into (from) the printed circuit board. However, these kind of advanced retaining devices cost high due to the generated machining waste during manufacturing. Actually, the function of these kind of retaining devices does not totally satisfy the users. For example, a user feels cumbersome due to alignment difficulty when more than one these advanced retaining devices are required to be concurrently connected to a same connector. Moreover, most of the printed circuit boards have specific through-holes or soldering pads with corresponding positions and sizes thereof for mating the board engaging portion of the retaining device (for example one or several hooks or soldering mounting ears), and sometimes the hook of one of the retaining devices will have to be enforceably declined (offset) so as to fit in the through-hole due to the inconsistency of the retaining devices connected to the connector. The conventional retaining devices may be referred to Taiwan Patents with the application numbers of 80202099, 81207106, 82204413, 82206344, 82216079, 83207936, and 84101384.
Therefore, the present invention especially focuses on providing a new structure of the connector engaging portion to prevent the aforementioned drawbacks of the conventional retaining devices.